Venezuela Needs International Help to Tackle Crime
http://transitions.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/10/14/venezuela_needs_international_help_to_tackle_crime?utm_content=bufferd848c&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Last week, a shootout took place between Venezuelan police and a government-sponsored paramilitary gang known as a "colectivo." The colectivos even managed to kidnap several police officers and held them for several hours until the police stormed the hostage-takers. When the smoke finally cleared, five people were dead. A number of others were wounded.
Few Venezuelans showed concern. Events like this have now become part of the country's daily routine. The gunfight came just days after a pro-government lawmaker, 27-year-old Robert Serra, was killed in his home in downtown Caracas.
As the crime wave continues to grow, it becomes clear that the government has no answers. It's time for the international community to take an active role.
Venezuela is now one of the most dangerous countries in the world, but the government seems unable to do anything about it. Last week, during a memorial service for Serra, President Nicolás Maduro said a woman confronted him, asking him to do something about crime. "What do you want me to do?" he responded.
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The government is so embarrassed about this that it has stopped publishing official murder statistics. Private estimates put the murder rate at 48.5 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest in the world and certainly the highest of any large country. Just this year, more than one hundred Caracas police agents have been murdered. Murder is the number one cause of death for young people between the ages of 10 and 19.
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The continent can no longer remain indifferent to what amounts to Venezuela's undeclared civil war.
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